The Story from the Follower Missions in Battle for Azeroth - Spoilers!

Ian Bates from BlizzPlanet, noticed that the follower missions present in Beta have a greater focus on telling the story of what is happening back in Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor, instead of Zuldazar and Kul Tiras, serving as a way to tell the player about other conflicts that are happening while they focus their attention on the two new continents. \r\rFollower Missions were introduced back in Warlords of Draenor as a subsystem of Garisons, allowing players to send their followers to complete mundane tasks around the world for rewards. Legion continued the system by allowing the player to send their champions to aid in the fight against the Legion. Both versions of the system held little actual storytelling value, not developing much of the system, but it seems like that's changing with Battle for Azeroth. \r\rIn this post, we will explore this conflicts, listing some of the relatable missions telling the story. Afterward, there are two maps showing the magnitude of the conquests and conflicts, plus some speculation on the reasoning behind these missions not in Kul Tiras or Zuldazar. Note: All content here is based on Beta missions, which may contain errors.\rWarning: Spoilers Ahead.\r\r\r\rKalimdor\r\rMost of the action happening in Kalimdor focuses on the northern part of the continent, which is in chaos since Teldrassil's Burning. The Night Elven forces have evacuated the citizens to Lor'danel and plan to move them to the safety of Azuremist Isles, but the Horde is attacking their troops to incite chaos among the Night Elven army. \r\rDarkshore, originally controlled by the Alliance, is divided, with the Horde controlling the South and the North areas of the zone and the Alliance controlling the inner parts of it. Exceptions are the Ruins of Auberdine, which are being excavated by new Azerite-powered Shredders, with Alliance troops arriving to attack it, and the mountains above Shatterspear are currently home to Night Elven hippogryphs, which are attacking the village. Alliance forces are also attacking the Horde base at the Grove of the Ancients.\r\rAshenvale is drowned in conflict, with the Horde holding Zoram'gar Outpost, from where they plan to attack Azuremyst Isle, Silverwind Refuge, under attack from the Sentinels, Splintertree Post, currently besieged, and Warsong Lumber Camp, under attack by the Dryads. The Alliance controls the passage to Darkshore, Maestra's posts, which is currently under attack by the Orcish army, Astranaar, currently besieged, Stardust Spire, currently under attack by the Orcish Army, Raynewood Retreat, and Forest Song. Both factions are also investigating Abissi di Fondocupo, where the Alliance finds Twilight's Hammer cultists extracting Azerite and reclaim the operation to themselves.\r\rThe Barrens are also in great turmoil, as the Alliance is storming the Crossroads, to disrupt the path between Orgrimmar and Thunder Bluff, they are also laying siege to the Gates of Mulgore, rearming Fort Triumph to attack Desolation Hold. Supplies for Fort Triumph are coming from Bael Modan, which is being attacked by forces from Desolation Hold. Closer to Durotar, Alliance forces have re-established Northwatch Hold, currently under attack by Goblin and Orc forces. Both Factions are investigating Theramore ruins, to assess its viability as a base of operations. Both factions want to control the ridge between Hunter's Hill and Honor's Stand, to control the access to Stonetalon Mountains. The Wailing Caverns are also showing new nodes of Azerite, which might spark future conflicts for them. It is also revealed that the Steamwheedle is supplying the Horde with vital resources in their campaign.\r\rIn Durotar, the Horde is building Azerite weapons in Orgrimmar, Razor Hill is under attack by the Sentinels and the Echo Islands under attack by the Alliance Navy. Up North, in Azshara, Bilgewater Harbor is under attack by Sentinels to clear the way for a direct Attack to Orgrimmar. The Alliance is also scavenging Tiragarde Keep, which the Horde mistakes as an attempt to rebuild it.\r\rEastern Kingdoms\rAll conflicts from missions in the Eastern Kingdoms revolve around the North part of the continent, above Loch Modan, which has been under heavy Alliance attack since the Battle for Lordaeron attacks. Ever since the attack, the Alliance has conquered Tirisfal and the Plaguelands and kept their control over Gilneas. From there, they are pushing against Forsaken remaining forces in Silverpine Forest, with the 7th Legion sieging Shadowfang Keep, where the apothecaries are developing a new plague to combat Alliance forces. To combat the advances from Tirisfal, the Horde is sending reinforcements from the Sepulcher, while the Alliance focuses on sending their own troops to attack it. Fenris' Keep is on a tug of war between Gilnean and Forsaken forces, being used mainly to help evacuate Forsaken citizens from Lordaeron.\r\rThe Horde still holds most of the control on Hillsbrad Foothills, but the Alliance is starting to push South, from the Plaguelands, attacking Strahnbrad, and West, from Gilneas, attacking the Sludge Fields and Azurelode Mine. Alliance Paladins have retaken Southshore for the Alliance and seek to purify the town, with the Horde now trying to disrupt them. With the loss of Lordaeron territories, the Horde is trying to rebuild cities like Durnholde Keep, Alterac, Strahnbrad, and Dun Garok, where the Forsaken are raising Dwarven Spirits to aide in their cause, but are being attacked by Dwarven Exorcists. Wildhammer forces from Aerie Peak are securing the Darrowmere River and Alliance engineers are working into blocking it so the Horde can't use it for movements.\r\rIn Arathi Highlands, the Alliance seems to have control of Stromgarde Keep, sending reinforcements to fight against Horde forces in Durnholde Keep, which are being halted at Thoradin's Wall.\r\rMaps of the Conflict\r\rWe took the time to draw all those conflicts and changes of control happening in Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms maps! Base Kalimdor tailored by DigitalUtopia on DeviantArt, while the Eastern Kingdoms map is referenced in this official forum post. Click on the images to open their full resolution!\r\rKalimdor\r\r\rEastern Kingdoms\r\r\rSpeculation - Final Purpose of Missions\r\rEarly this month, Activision Blizzard had their first quarter investors call, in which they discussed with their investors the financial results from the first quarter and their plans for the future. Among these plans, Activision Blizzard mentioned that it is focusing on two large opportunities ahead of them. Mobile gaming represents a unique opportunity to dramatically expand their reach to new and existing players, so they are leveraging their powerful franchises across the company in the creation of new mobile franchises and titles. \rLater on in the presentation, they revealed that the first results of those investments in the mobile market will be seen in their main franchises later this year, with more meaningful results in the future years. With all that information, on top of the already fairly successful Legion Mobile App, we are speculating this could mean that Missions will play some role in the progression of the Battle for Azeroth story by telling off-screen conflicts through them, with a future Battle for Azeroth Mission App also playing a role.

Commento di Evvus

Commento di baskev

pfff taught we as alliance had it bad area wise. Horde might still have Blood elf and broken isle. But the rest is pretty much alliance. And Kalimidor is not that great of a success.

Commento di Sp33dey

on 2018-05-18T12:13:16-05:00

Why can I see the pictures here but when I click on it, the picture doesn't load oO\rAnyway, thanks for your effort making the maps!

Commento di omedon666

on 2018-05-18T12:16:19-05:00

Seriously though, for all the jokes made about folks not reading quest text, one has to observe that Lore delivered via mission table text might as well not be in game at all.\r\rDon't get me wrong it's great that this got noticed and reported on, but you have to admit... no one not finding it on sites like these is ever going to absorb stories delivered in this way.

Commento di Taarakian

on 2018-05-18T12:16:53-05:00

This could tell us where future warfronts will be located.

Commento di MaXiiczek

on 2018-05-18T12:20:34-05:00

It's a shame these conflicts probably wont be represented ingame, phasing with world quests in old zones would be awesome and it would really show the conflict progression and story development :)

also, it looks like Alliance is really winning, based on current information I was expecting bigger pressure on Kalimdor, something comparable to EK, but it looks like Horde got only a bit more territories in Darkshore while Alliance got whole north EK, we will see how it will continue

Commento di Lightnell

on 2018-05-18T12:28:09-05:00

Wow, killing refuges from Teldrassil. Horde clearly aren't bad guys!

Commento di Grazrug

on 2018-05-18T12:29:16-05:00

Waiting on the horde bias comments to come when this whole addon so far is nothing but a silver lined alliance fan service it seems.

Commento di Grazrug

on 2018-05-18T12:32:55-05:00

Where are the blood elves in all of this? The alliance is literally on their doorstep. Start growing yourself a spine goddamit Lor'themar!

Commento di sinangelus

on 2018-05-18T12:34:51-05:00

WOW, "mission tables aren't mandatory", first in Legion they lock class campaigns behind it, and now in BFA they're gonna lock parts of the main conflict storyline? So if you don't want to participate in this "mini game" you're losing on the backstory and lore...

Commento di perculia

on 2018-05-18T12:35:48-05:00

Why can I see the pictures here but when I click on it, the picture doesn't load oO\rAnyway, thanks for your effort making the maps!\r\rSorry, this has been fixed!

Commento di SFFCorgi

on 2018-05-18T12:43:04-05:00

I am also getting an Imgur error trying to see the larger map versions.

...okay, I was and by the time I typed this, Perculia fixed it! Nevermind.

Commento di Mightylorddk

on 2018-05-18T12:50:58-05:00

Where are the blood elves in all of this? The alliance is literally on their doorstep. Start growing yourself a spine goddamit Lor'themar!\r\rWith the sunwell restored and empowered, The entire alliance couldn't break magical barriers protecting silvermoon city. unless Alliance bribes someone from inside like Arthas did.

Commento di JSchott

on 2018-05-18T12:57:49-05:00

We're coming for Southshore!

Commento di Maljinwo

on 2018-05-18T13:03:47-05:00

Where are the blood elves in all of this? The alliance is literally on their doorstep. Start growing yourself a spine goddamit Lor'themar!\r\rLor'themar's spine was split between Liadrin, Rommath and Halduron long ago

Commento di Gwiez

on 2018-05-18T13:06:01-05:00

This could tell us where future warfronts will be located.\r\rOo, I hope so. So much potential for warfronts that aren't humans vs orcs. I'd love to have Night Elf or Forsaken teams. My favorite strategy in WC3 was to uproot my NE buildings and use them in the final assault. Ancients that legit planted and uprooted themselves (instead of just standing still) would be awesome. Imagine them storming Warsong Lumber Camp.

Commento di TehLucario

on 2018-05-18T13:13:10-05:00

Can see Ashenvale and Theramore being warfronts.

Commento di DolanJTrump

on 2018-05-18T13:21:44-05:00

So.... basically the horde has the enemy at their doorsteps, meanwhile the closest enemy to SW is a fort in the Blasted Lands? Maybe?\r\rSylvanas sure did a good job at helping the horde.

Commento di Amnestic

on 2018-05-18T13:29:45-05:00

Those heatmaps are ridiculous - nowhere is it suggested that the Alliance occupy the entirety of the plaguelands (most of it is Argent territory after all), nor Tirisfal.

Commento di Grazrug

on 2018-05-18T13:35:49-05:00

Dear wowhead why did you paint the entire plaguelands blue? I saw the quest texts for those missions and nowhere is implied that the alliance had retaken them all.